Sony Admits Lost Sales Due To Ongoing PS4 Shortage

It’s not the first time we’re hearing about a PS4 stock shortage problem, and now Sony has stepped out from the shadows to admit that it has lost sales as a result of its struggles with supply.

Despite the fact that the PS4 sales have dominated the Xbox One since both consoles launched last November, Sony’s PS4 has been held back by low stock levels consistently since launch, and the issue continues to persist even though we’re now more than eight months into the new generation.

Sony, speaking with TrustedReviews, has talked about the PS4 stock issue and has suggested that the console is finally nearing a full production run.

“We haven’t yet caught up with the initial demand across Europe.” Fergal Gara, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment UK told TrustedReviews at E3 2014. “We are still dealing with the day one market.”

He added: “We are very close to being in a full supply situation, but we are not quite there yet.”

Gara described the PS4 supply chain as being “close” to clearing the backlog, but admitted that the issue continues to result in lost sales.

“We may have lost some sales,” the PlayStation UK head said. “There is no update on PS4 sales figures right now, but suffice to say it is still selling, and selling very well.”

Evaluating the areas worst affected by the PS4 stock shortages, Gara stated that the UK is actually doing better than most.

“We are in a bit better shape in the UK, but there are countries that are still selling out every last unit that drops into the market on a weekly basis,” he told us.

“A good example at the moment would be Germany who had phenomenal sales figures last week, but they just haven’t had enough stock so far.”

Despite lost PS4 sales, due to the lack of stock potentially edging customers towards buying the more readily available and evenly priced Xbox One, Gara highlights the future festive period as an opportunity to gain those sales back.

“We have spent a lot of time at E3 talking about the plan for Christmas and I think we’ve got enough exciting content to be able to rekindle that interest,” he said.

“Anyone who may have said ‘forget about it, I will leave it for a while’, I think we have enough of a story now to say to them that they should reassess.”

It’s eyebrow-raising to still have these issues eight months after launch. I guess in this particular case it does speak of one of the few advantages of being an early adopter, which is being settled.